Hunted
by JDP
Summary: A mysterious person wants Ash, and his friends become endangered in the process. This could have been much better, and for some odd reason, I planned for it to end differently, yet I changed the ending to a less satisfying one... I'll edit later.


Foreword

bHunted/b

The evening sky seemed peaceful as could be above Saffron City, a flock of Pidgey heading towards the nearby forests to rest for the night. The Pidgey suddenly stopped in midair as if they impacted something, and started to fall towards the ground before flapping their wings again. They cawed in confusion. They had hit something. But what was it? They couldn't see it.

There was a clearing in the forest not far away from Saffron City. The grass suddenly blent as if there was a strong wind, and a huge area of the grass suddenly flattened. The winds stopped and all was still.

In an instant, where the grass was flattened, a large machine which appeared to be some sort of aircraft popped out of nowhere. It was green and had several different sections.

A door opened on the side of the vehicle, and a person stepped out. Wearing a light purple outfit, sunglasses, and with short grey hair, anyone who saw here would know almost instantly that it was the infamous Pokemon Hunter J.

She was here on a mission that her employer sent her on. But it wasn't to capture pokemon. No, it was something entirely different. Something she's never done before. She was here to capture a human. More specifically, she was to capture three different girls, according to her assignment. Two coordinators, one named May and the other named Dawn, and a gym leader named Misty.

Why her employer wanted her to capture girls instead of pokemon was beyond her imagination. He did mention that each of the girls had some valuable pokemon, so she would still be able to get some pokemon as well.

She threw a pokeball, and in a flash of light, a Salamence appeared in front of her, growling a greeting. She hopped on top of the dragon pokemon, and with a flap of its wings, the dragon took off, heading into Saffron City, where her first target was supposed to be.

May was in her hotel room getting ready to take a nice long rest. Tomorrow was the day she'll win her fifth contest ribbon, and then she'll be able to go to the Grand Festival! She wanted to be good and rested for the contest, so she was going to bed early. She didn't want to lose this one.

Since she didn't have pajamas with her, she slept in her normal clothes. She was used to doing that when she travelled with Ash, so it was no big deal. Stretching her arms, she got into the bed the hotel had for her, snuggling under the covers. She took one last look at the sun as it settled below the horizon before rolling over and closing her eyes.

No sooner had she shut her eyes than she opened them again to the sound of a noise. Sitting up, she looked out the window again. She could have sworn she had heard something. It was dark out now, the sun having set just moments ago. Getting out of the bed, she walked over to the window and opened it. Poking her head outside, she looked around for whatever could have made the sound she had heard. She saw nothing. She must have been hearing things.

She went back to the bed, and once again got under the covers, closed her eyes, and tried to go to sleep.

There was another noise which woke her up. Sighing, she looked around the room and looked back at the window. There must be some Noctowl or something flying around, making all that noise. Maybe if she closed the window... She got up, went to the window, and shut it.

The moment she shut it, she suddenly slumped down to her knees, groaning in pain. A sharp pain had hit her in the back, and she clenched her teeth with the pain. Her muscles felt weak for a moment.

Someone grabbed her arms. She tried to see who it was, but they were behind them and it was too dark to make out any details.

"W-who are you?" she demanded, still hurting from the pain she felt. There was no response except for a shushing noise. She felt her arms being pinned behind her back and rope being tied around them, as well as her ankles, but she couldn't do much about it. She couldn't move her arms or legs for some reason.

She was about to say something else, but then something was inserted into her mouth, a round ball of some sort. It was attached to a belt, which clipped together on the back of her head. She mumbled something, and she saw a figure walk up next to her. She couldn't make out any details, but from what she could tell, it was a woman.

It was Hunter J, although May couldn't tell. She might not even know who she is if she saw her. J opened the window, and then grabbed her captive, who was tightly bound and gagged, and pushed her out the window. May started to fall towards the ground, and she shouted, although muffled, in fear, but her fall was stopped short by J's Salamence, who caught her on its back. J then exited via the window, carrying May's items, and leapt onto her pokemon's back. Quietly, the dragon flapped its wings and took off into the sky, their leave hidden by the blackness of the cloudy night.

They returned to the ship, and the captive was placed into a storage room for the time being. That was easy. She had easily stunned the girl with a stun gun, which made it all the easier to capture her. Now J was on her way to Cerulean City, where her next target was. Supposedly, she was supposed to capture the Cerulean Gym Leader, Misty, next.

It was time to close up the Gym, and Misty was once again left behind to do so. Her sisters had left without her a few hours ago for dinner. Typical. They always got to have fun...

She said goodnight to all the pokemon and left them in their tanks where they slept. She then grabbed her items and headed out the door, turning the lights off as she did so. The gym had outside lights that were used at night, which were on while she got out the key to lock the gym doors.

As she locked the door, she heard a noise behind her. She turned, and saw a very large pokemon flying in the air. It looked like some sort of dragon type pokemon. Odd. She'd never seen a dragon pokemon flying over the city before...

The dragon landed not far away from where Misty was standing, and she saw that it was a Salamence, or at least, that what she thought it was. She'd never seen one before. It was huge! And it was only 20 feet away! She whimpered slightly as it stared at her for a few moments.

"What do you want?" she asked nervously, breaking the silence of the night.

The pokemon didn't respond at first, but then it took a step forward, which caused Misty to take a step back in fear. The dragon didn't seem to be friendly...

Each step the Salamence took forward, Misty took a step backwards. Soon, her back was against the doors of the gym. She was cornered, and the dragon was close enough that it could grab her if she tried to run.

She tried to think of something to do, hopefully without becoming the Salamence's midnight snack...

But then the Salamence suddenly backed away, turned, growled softly, and took off into the air, flying over the gym and into the night sky. Misty watched half in curiousity, half out of fear.

"What was that all about?" she asked, mostly to herself as there was no one else around. She shrugged, trying to shake off the tension she had from that experience, and walked away from the gym.

She heard a click. She spun around to see the door of the gym opening. Was someone in there? A thief?!

"Hey!" she shouted as the door opened. "What do you think you're doing?!" Her anger suddenly turned to fear when she saw that the person opening the door was pointing a weapon at her. She stepped backwards, putting her hands up in the air as a nonthreatening stance.

Even so, the person fired, and she felt a pain in her chest, and then her body felt weak, which caused her to stumble to the ground. She sat there on her hands and knees, panting heavily from the pain. That wasn't a lethal weapon. It was a stun weapon.

She looked up to see the person, whom she could clearly tell was a woman, coming up to her with some rope. She tried to move, but only sat down rather than sitting on her hands and knees. She couldn't get up. The woman proceeded to tie her arms behind her back and tie her legs together.

Misty growled at her. She noticed that the woman had a bag of pokeballs with her. Likely the gym's pokemon. "Let me go!" she said, trying to move. "And give me back my poke-" She was cut off when a strip of tape was placed over her mouth, preventing her from talking. She mumbled loudly as the women whistled. Her eyes widened when she saw the Salamence fly over to her. It was all a ruse!

J picked up Misty and placed her on Salamence's back, and then got on herself. Once again, they took off into the air and headed back to the ship.

The plan was simple for capturing Misty. Have Salamence distract her while she broke in a different area of the gym and took all the pokemon, after which she would capture the girl. It had gone perfectly.

Back at the ship, she took Misty to the room where May was in, put her in there and shut the door. Misty and May sat there in the room, bound and gagged, and looked at each other, confused. Why were they both captured? What did these people want with them? They'd probably find out eventually. They weren't as weak as they were when they were captured, and tried to get out of their binds. But they were too tight, and they were stuck.

J headed back to the cockpit and set course for the Sinnoh region, where her next target was. A coordinator named Dawn. Her employer had already tracked her down, and she was somewhere in the forest.

After a long day of walking and training, Ash, Dawn, and Brock were setting up camp for the night. They were on their way to Jubilife City, where Dawn's next contest was going to be. They were about a day away from the city by now, but it was dark and they didn't want to get lost in the forest.

After saying their goodnights, they each went to bed. Brock, Ash, and Pikachu slept in sleeping bags, but Dawn slept in her tent. She went inside, and took the hair ties out of her hair, letting her blue hair free. With a yawn, she stretched, and got in her bed that was in the tent. Normally she would change into her pajamas, but she was really tired, and just wanted to sleep.

They'd done quite a bit of training today. Piplup and Buneary were really good at doing their contest moves, combining beauty and power perfectly. She hoped she'd do good in the contest this time. Maybe Zoey would be there. She wanted to battle her again.

But she had to go to sleep if they wanted to get a good start on the road towards Jubelife city tomorrow. She closed her eyes, and soon went off into dreamland.

The unzipping of her tent woke her up, slowly at first. She must have been asleep for a couple hours. What happened?

A hand holding a cloth went over her mouth, taking her by surprise. She called out and tried to get up, but she was held down by whoever was there. She struggled, kicking her feet, shaking the entire tent. But something was making her tired... She felt somewhat weak, and slowly gave in to whatever was happening. She closed her eyes, and passed out.

J picked up the chloroformed Dawn, and carried her as quietly out of the tent as possible, grabbing her pokeballs as she left. She glanced over at the sleeping boys. Fortunately, the brief struggle hadn't woken them up. Carrying her last target, she walked off into the forest where her ship had silently landed.

She was about to get onto her ship when she heard a pokemon's voice behind her. Turning, she saw an angry Pikachu standing before her, sparks flying from his cheeks. Realizing that it was about to attack her, she quickly ran onto the ship, the doors closing behind her.

"CHU!!" The pokemon shouted as a thunderbolt exploded from its body and hit the ship, but it did practically nothing to it. The engines rumbled, and it started to take off into the air. Pikachu fired lightning bolt after lightning bolt at it, but it didn't do much, and it took off into the sky. "Pika..." he sighed, watching the ship take off.

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted as he ran up to his pokemon, having been awakened by the sound of Pikachu's attacks. "What happened?"

Brock was right behind him. "And where's Dawn?"

Pikachu tried explaining as best as he could, pointing up to the sky towards where the plane went. And somehow, Ash understood most of what he said.

"Kidnapped?" he asked. "But why would anyone want to kidnap Dawn?"

Upon entering her ship, J promptly took Dawn into the room where Misty and May were, and took some rope that was stored in there. With Dawn still unconscious, she started to tie up the young cooridinator while May and Misty struggled to get free in an attempt to help her. She took Dawn's own scarf and tied it tightly over her mouth.

Now that she had all three girls, she would head back to her employer. Hopefully she would find out why she had to capture these girls.

She took one last glance at them before leaving the room, shutting the door behind her. Reaching the cockpit, she picked up a phone and dialed a number. The phone rang for a few moments before someone answered.

"I have what you ordered," she said bluntly into the reciever. "Mind telling me why I had to kidnap three kids?"

"It will all be explained in due time," a voice said at the other end. "Just bring them to the location we previously met at." The phone was hung up at the other end. J hung up her phone, and set course for the location.

It took about an hour to reach the place, which was in the middle of the ocean between the regions of Kanto and Sinnoh. It was a large rocky island that seemed abandoned. But upon reaching the island, a hidden hatch opened in the ground for J's ship to go through. Heading through a tunnel, it came into a large corrider where it landed with a soft thud.

A few people were waiting for the ship to arrive, wearing black outfits. The hatch on the ship opened, and J walked out. Some of her henchmen took the girls with them, holding them by their arms and forcing them to move foward. The three of them. Dawn having regained consciousness by now, mumbled and struggled to escape, but the ropes held them tight.

"Where is your boss?" J asked the people waiting for her. "I have the targets he requested." She didn't mention the pokemon she took from them. After all, the man had said that she could keep them as part of the payment.

"He's a bit busy at the moment," one of them said. "However, I have here the payment you were promised." He picked up a bag next to him and opened it. There were many large wads of cash stashed inside of it. Showing it to her for a moment, he suddenly shut it. "But there's still one more thing you have to do."

J growled. This wasn't part of the deal. "What is it?" she asked.

The man smiled. "You'll see." He turned towards the other three people who were with him. "Take the girls for now, and deploy the message."

"What message?" J demanded. She hated being kept out of the loop.

"The reason why we asked you to capture these girls is for bait." J was about to ask a question, but the man answered it right there and then. "Bait for a particular pokemon trainer named Ash Ketchum."

Hearing Ash's name, the girls briefly stopped struggling as their captors started to take them away. They were being used as bait? For Ash? What would these people want with Ash?

"Never heard of him," J said.

"You probably haven't, but you've met him. He was one of the companions that was with your target in the Sinnoh region."

J thought for a second. He then realized that he was right. That kid with the Pikachu was the same guy who got onto her ship about a week ago. She frowned at the thought of it. He had a potentially valuable Pikachu and he stole it back from her.

"Anyways, our messenger is on their way as we speak. He'll be here soon enough." He looked back at the three girls. "I'm sure of it."

The sun came up in the Sinnoh forest, yet Ash, Brock, and Pikachu weren't sleeping. They were still trying to figure out what to do, since someone had kidnapped Dawn. They instantly packed up and headed to the nearest town in the middle of the night to get some help. However, they were still in the forest, and they hoped they hadn't gotten lost.

"I'm worried about Dawn," Ash said. "I hope she's okay."

"Me too," Brock said. "I wonder why anyone would kidnap Dawn?"

"Beats me..." Ash said with a sad sigh.

"Pika..." the electric pokemon on his shoulder said as well. His ears then perked up. He heard something. "Pika?" He looked around the area.

"Huh? What is it Pikachu?" Ash asked. His question was answered by the sound of a pokemon. A Flygon burst forth from the trees, flying just over their heads. The boys braced themselves due to the gust of wind that occured when it flew past. The pokemon then flew off in the opposite direction, leaving their range of sight.

"What was that all about?" Brock asked. Then he noticed an envelope sitting on the ground. That wasn't there before. Picking it up, he said, "What's this?" When he opened it and read it, he gasped in surprise.

"What is it Brock?" Ash asked, looking at his friend.

"Read this." Ash took the letter from Brock and looked at it. It read:

iAsh Ketchum,

I believe you are now wondering what has happened to your friend, Dawn. Don't worry. She's fine. For now. She's merely in our possesion. And so are your other two friends, Misty and May./i

There were pictures of each of the girls printed on the piece of paper, showing them tied up and gagged.

iNow, they will only be in perfect condition provided that you comply with our demands. In precisely four hours, go into the woods where you just were balone/b and bring your pokemon with you. I know you have more than those in your posession, so bring those along as well. I suggest you bring your strongest, such as, say, your Pikachu or your Charizard? Still, bring all of your pokemon as well. A transport will be provided for you at your location. Please do come peacefully. Again, be there alone, or else./i

There was no signature at the end. Just a blank space.

Ash was in shock. They captured May and Misty too?! Who were these people?!

"What are you going to do Ash?" Brock asked.

Ash was silent for a moment. If he wanted to see his friends again, he'd better do what they say. But why did they want him to bring his pokemon? As a trade for the girls? He sighed, then turned to Brock.

"We better get moving. I need to make a couple phone calls."

A few hours later, Ash was in the forest by himself, where they had slept the night before, with Pikachu at his side. They were looking into the air, awaiting their transport.

Once Ash got to Jubelife City, he had told Officer Jenny what had happened. She told him that they'd sent an police helicopter along not far behind the transport that would pick him up, as well as place a tracker on him so that they could track down whoever did this. He had also made a few phone calls to get all the pokemon he had caught in the past that he could still bring along with him. Then he had come here, alone, like the note said.

Pikachu and he waited for a few moments, and then they felt a gust of wind. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, a ship appeared right in front of them, and a hatch opened.

Ash gasped when he saw who was standing there. It was the Pokemon Hunter, J. He growled. So she was behind this! She motioned for him to come aboard, making no facial expressions at all. Reluctantly, he walked aboard, not saying anything to her as the hatch closed behind him. The ship then took off, turning on a cloaking device so that it couldn't be seen.

Inside the ship, J led Ash to a room where he could sit. He was about to go in and sit down when J stopped him. Placing her hand on his shirt, she pulled off the hidden tracking device that he was wearing, tossed it on the ground, and then stomped on it, crushing it.

"Nice try," she said before she left the room. As she left, she told two of her henchmen, "Keep an eye on him."

Ash sat in a seat, with Pikachu on his lap, both of them with a stern, angry look on their faces. Whatever was going to happen, they were determined to win.

It took about an hour before they reached their destination, returning to the island in the middle of the ocean. However, to Ash's despair, the police helicopter was unable to follow, not only because of the cloaking device, but the tracking device didn't give them any information so that they could find him. He was all on his own now.

He left the ship once it landed inside the secret base. J led him to a different room than the hangar they were in. It was a large room, and it looked almost exactly like a pokemon stadium, minus the seats for the crowd. At the other end of the room, he saw four people wearing black outfits, and three others sitting on the ground that he instantly recognized.

"Misty! May! Dawn!" he called out their names. The girls all mumbled "Ash!" beneath their gags when they saw him across the arena. "Grrr... Let them go!" he shouted to J and the people around them.

"I'm afraid we can't do that," a man said across the room, who was wearing a diffferent outfit than the others. It was black, but it also had some red on it. "There's still some matters we need to discuss."

"Who are you?! Why did you kidnap my friends?!" Ash demanded. Pikachu agreed with an angry "Pika pika!"

"To lure you in, of course," the man said with a grin. "We've been watching you Ash, for quite a while now. You've done lots of things in the past couple of years, competed in five different leagues, excelled in a couple of them. And you've seen many kinds of rare pokemon, from Mewtwo to Rayquaza to Deoxys. Many different organizations have had plans foiled by you and your friends. You have quite a record."

"Yeah," Ash said. "So?"

"So, you've obviously had a lot of experience in your journey. I wish to battle you, but, there's a twist. If you win, I will set the girls free and let you go on your way. But if I win, all of your pokemon will become mine."

"What?!" Ash shouted. "No way!"

"Very well," the man said calmly, then snapped his fingers. Behind him, the three men turned towards the girls, and pulled them to their feet. "I guess you don't care about the well-being of your friends then. Dispose of them."

"Wait!" Ash shouted as the men started to take the girls away. They stopped. He said with a sigh, "I'll battle you."

The man chuckled. "A wise choice, young trainer. This will be a three on three battle. No substitutions. Best two out of three. You choose first." The henchmen returned the girls back to the ground, or rather let them slump to the ground as they released their grip. They grunted as they hit the ground.

Ash growled. He hated choosing his first pokemon. And he had no idea what kind of pokemon this guy had. He thought for a moment. He had all of his pokemon with him. He could use any one of them, but he was forced to use three...

He took out a pokeball from his backpack and threw it shouting, "Sceptile, I choose you!" In a flash of light, his Sceptile appeared on the battlefield, and shouted a battle cry.

The man took out a pokeball and shouted, "Go, Tyranitar!" Throwing his pokeball, the rock beast emerged from it, and roared a challenge to Sceptile.

A Tyranitar, huh? That's going to be tough to beat. "Are ya ready Sceptile?"

"Sceptile!" the grass pokemon exclaimed.

"All right then, use quick attack!" Sceptile suddenly raced across the battlefield at lightning speed, heading straight towards his opponent.

"Tyranitar, stand your ground!" With a growl, the rock pokemon braced himself, ready to take the blow. Sure enough, Sceptile struck Tyranitar right in the gut, pushing the large creature back, but the beast seemed to be hardly affected.

"Use slash!"

With a growl, Tyranitar swung his forearm downwards towards Sceptile, making direct contact with his head, and sent the grass pokemon flying, his claws leaving gashes where they struck their target. Sceptile got up with a grunt, and shook off the blow.

"Sceptile, use leaf blade!" Ash called out. Glowing blades appeared on Sceptile's arms, and he jumped raced forward towards his opponent, stopping just two feet from the rock pokemon. He leapt upwards from the position he was at, striking Tyranitar right in the jaw with the blade. "Now use slam!" Spinning around, Sceptile slammed his tail right into Tyranitar's head, knocking the large pokemon flat on his back. The grass pokemon then jumped back a couple feet to see what his opponent would do.

The Tyranitar got back to his feet with a soft grunt. It seemed hardly injured by the move. Its defense must be very high.

"Use hyperbeam!" With a roar, a ball of energy generated in the mouth of the pokemon, and in moments, it fired directly towards Sceptile. Seeing the attack coming, Sceptile leapt into the air, narrowly dodging the explosion below.

"Sceptile, use bullet seed!" Dozens of brown seeds fired from Sceptile's open mouth, much like bullets, and pummeled Tyranitar below him, who growled in pain, attempting to block the attack with his arms. Sceptile's attack eventually ceased as he landed back on the ground.

"Use earthquake Tyranitar!" With a roar, Tyranitar stomped his foot on the ground, which suddenly shook the entire stadium. Even Ash nearly fell off his feet. Sceptile struggled to keep his balance with the ground shaking beneath him, but he fell to the ground. "Now, use slash!" Tyranitar charged towards Sceptile with surprising speed.

"Watch out Sceptile!" Just as Sceptile got up, Tyranitar pounded him back into the ground with a powerful slash attack, leaving gashes on the grass pokemon's sides. But that was just one slash. With his other arm, he lifted Sceptile into the air, and threw him across the arena, causing him to spin sideways like a drill as he flew through the air. However, Sceptile took this spinning to his advantage so that he landed easily on all fours. He stood onto his hind legs, but he winced in pain from the wounds on his sides.

"Sceptile!" Ash called out. "You alright?"

"Another hyperbeam, Tyranitar!" Once again, the beam of energy concentrated within the creature's jaws and then burst forth towards Sceptile.

"Look out!" Ash cried. Sceptile attempted to dodge the beam, but his wounds slowed him down. The beam struck him right in the chest, sending him flying up into the air and crashing into a wall, leaving an imprint of his body. The pokemon fell to the ground with a thud, unconscious and unable to battle.

"Sceptile..." Ash groaned. He returned the grass pokemon to its pokeball. "Take a rest buddy. Hopefully I'll see you again..."

"Well Ash," the man said, returning his Tyranitar back to its pokeball. "I do believe you're down by one battle."

He knew that. And if he lost the next one, he'd lose all his pokemon. And he wouldn't see the girls again either. They knew that as well, and were looking at him with worried eyes.

"Choose your next pokemon."

Ash grabbed yet another pokeball from his backpack, and threw it. "Go, Charizard!" Materializing in front of him was the fire pokemon, Charizard, who roared loudly, breathing fire as a challenge.

"I suspected you would use your Charizard. I'd like to see how it fares against my next pokemon. Go, Rampardos!" Throwing a pokeball, a pachycephalosaur-resembling pokemon appeared on the battlefield, nearly as big as Charizard. It growled a challenge to the dragon in front of it. "I believe you've battled one of these in your previous gym battle."

"A Rampardos huh?" Ash said, looking at the pokemon. He had battled one in his last gym battle, but that one was newly evolved. This one looked like it had a lot of experience in battling, plus it was bigger! "It doesn't scare us, right Charizard?"

Charizard growled reassuringly to his trainer, and spread his wings, ready to battle his opponent.

"Use flamethrower!" With a snort, the dinosaur pokemon expelled large amounts of flame from its jaws, which flew across the arena towards Charizard. However, Charizard responded with his own set of flames, which collided with his opponent's, causing a massive explosion, the smoke spreading all through the arena, suffocating everyone there. Ash coughed, covering his mouth so as not to breathe in the smoke. Pikachu covered his mouth as well, turning in the opposite direction of the smoke. Everyone else did the same as well, except for the captured girls, who had no choice but to bear with the smoke.

Rampardos suddenly burst forth through the smoke, its dome aimed directly at Charizard. But to its surprise, it did not strike its target. As the smoke cleared a bit, it could see that Charizard was nowhere to be seen. At least not in front of it.

It was struck from above by reptilian feet, which plowed its head into the ground before taking off into the sky. Charizard had anticipated that Rampardos would try to attack through the smoke, so he had taken off into the sky. Something he learned in the Charicific Valley while battling with other Charizard. He roared at his advantage over his enemy, who was stuck on the ground while he was in the sky.

"Good work Charizard!" Ash said. Pikachu congratulated him too with a happy "Pika!"

"Don't think because Charizard is in the air doesn't mean that he can't be attacked," the man said with a grin. "Rampardos, zen headbutt!" Removing its head from the imprint in the ground, Rampardos looked up at Charizard and bellowed. It took several steps backwards before racing forward, its forehead glowing with blue light, and leaping surprisingly high into the air, ramming Charizard right in the gut and bringing him down to the ground. It took a few steps backwards, ready to ram its opponent again, if need be.

Charizard snarled in pain from the blow, but got up, and roared at Rampardos. That blow didn't take the fight of him, that's for sure. He breathed a stream of fire directly at Rampardos' head, engulfing him in flames. The pokemon bellowed in pain, leaping backwards to shake off the attack. It snorted, shaking off the embers that were still on its body, and then charged towards Charizard again.

Apparently, this battle was one without any trainer orders, or at least not very many. That's what it seemed to be to the captive girls. The girls watched the battle, each of them wanting Charizard, and ultimately Ash, to win. Their lives depended on it. They still struggled to untie their binds, but they were too tight. Misty thought she got pretty close to getting free, but it wasn't so. The knots were very tight. She just watched the battle along with Dawn and May, each of them occassionally shouting for Ash or Charizard as the battle went on.

Charizard flew through the air, flying down and striking Ramparados with his body time after time, slashing him with his claws and knocking the pokemon over every so often. Likewise, Ramparados knocked Charizard to the ground with a headbutt or a flamethrower, but both seemed to be on par with each other either way. Both were starting to get a little tired.

"Enough of this!" the man said. "Rampardos, use Head Smash!" With a snort, Rampardos suddenly raced towards Charizard, who was on the ground, at a high speed, its body shrouded in a blue glow.

"Charizard, watch out!" Ash shouted.

Charizard growled, but didn't attempt to dodge the attack. Instead, he stood his ground, not moving an inch.

The man chuckled. That foolish Charizard doesn't know what it's in for. Rampardos quickly approached Charizard rapidly, ready to embed its skull into the fire pokemon's body.

"Charizard!" Ash shouted at his pokemon, half out of anger, half out of desperation. At the very last moment, Charizard, spread his wings, leapt forward towards Rampardos, and grabbed ahold of the pokemon's head. It didn't stop the beast though, as he was pushed several yards until he came to a stop at a wall, smacking his back against it. But the damage was actually weakened. Charizard had pushed as hard as he could against the attack, and leaned forward, putting his weight on it, which lessened its power. He was injured by the head smash, particullary when he crashed into the wall, but he held onto Rampardos, hovering right above his opponent's skull, and just went along for the ride. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. If he had flew into the air, Rampardos could have just leapt up and struck him, perhaps doing worse damage than if he was on the ground. He had made the right decision.

Charizard shook off the blow that he had taken, and grinned. His hands were right on Rampardos' skull. He lifted upwards, holding the dinosaur pokemon vertically. He then grabbed ahold of the pokemon by the horns, flapped his wings, and flew up into the sky, surprisingly lifting the bulky creature into the air.

Ash chuckled as he saw that Charizard was still able to battle, as well as the fact that he was carrying Rampardos into the air. "Charizard!" he shouted. "Seismic toss!"

With a bellow of agreement, Charizard had already planned on doing that. Rampardos was hanging by the horns and kicking frantically, trying to escape Charizard's grip, but it wasn't going to escape this move. The flame pokemon rapidly did several backwards somersaults near the top of the stadium, which was quite high. With a final rotation, as he headed downwards, he rotated upright and threw Rampardos with all his might headfirst towards the ground. The dinosaur pokemon shouted in surprise as the earth rapidly approached. It wasn't going to survive this, and in mere seconds, it impacted the ground with a massive explosion of dust and rock.

"Rampardos!" the man shouted. As the smoke cleared, the body of Rampardos was seen lying in the middle of a huge dent in the ground, unconscious. Even its thick skull was unable to save it.

"You did it Charizard!" Ash called out in rejoicment. Pikachu shouted for joy as well, as Charizard flew down towards the ground, roaring in victory. The girls shouted for joy beneath their gags. They weren't goners yet. But Ash still had one more battle to fight.

"I should have known your Charizard would have won," the man said, returning Rampardos to its pokeball. "After all, it did defeat a legendary pokemon. But you've still got one more battle."

Ash nodded as he returned Charizard to his pokeball. It was his last chance to save the girls and keep his pokemon. He looked down at Pikachu.

"Are ya ready Pikachu?" he asked.

"Pika!" The mouse pokemon was determined, and he jumped out to the middle of the battlefield, sparks flying from its cheeks, a surefire indication that he was ready to fight.

"Aggron, go!" In a flash of light, the monsterous metal pokemon appeared with a roar, ready to battle.

The girls looked at the Aggron, and then looked back at Pikachu. It seemed like an impossible battle for little Pikachu to win, with that giant hulking beast. But they knew Pikachu was tougher than he looked. They cheered for Pikachu, even though their voices were muffled by their gags.

iThis is the final battle. I gotta win this one or else I lose all my pokemon, and worse, lose my friends.../i

"Pikachu, use quick attack!" Ash shouted.

"Pika!" With a flash, Pikachu raced in the direction of Aggron, zig-zagging back and forth as he approached the larger pokemon.

"Aggron, use headbutt!" Growling, Aggron swung its head downwards and charged towards Pikachu, aiming to slam its horns into Pikachu. But Pikachu dodged the headbutt by jumping to the right, and then ramming Aggron's side with his quick attack. It didn't do much damage to the metal monster, who promptly swung its head in Pikachu's direction, smacking him with his horns, sending the little electric pokemon flying.

However, Pikachu did a back flip and landed on his feet. He was a little bruised, but he was still willing to fight.

"Pikachu, use iron tail!" Ash commanded. Obeying, Pikachu leapt towards Aggron, his tail glowing brightly. Swinging it in front of him, he scored a direct hit to Aggron's skull, causing the beast to stumble and nearly topple over.

"Aggron, you use iron tail as well!" With a growl, Aggron used the stumbling caused by Pikachu to swing his body around as he deliberately fell, and slamed the little mouse pokemon with his massive tail, sending him flying across the arena.

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted as the yellow pokemon smashed into a wall and collasped to the ground. But surprisingly, Pikachu wasn't out of the battle yet. His teeth clenched, he forced himself to his feet. He knew what would happen if he lost the battle, and wasn't going to let that happen.

"That Pikachu's pretty tough," the man said. "But the battle's just about over. Aggron, use double-edge!" With a growl, Aggron stampeded towards Pikachu quickly, ready to plow into it with its massive body.

"Volt tackle!"

With a "Pika!" Pikachu ran towards Aggron, his pace rapidly increasing and panting heavily, until his entire body was covered with a blinding yellow shield of electricity. The two pokemon rapidly approached each other, their collision inevitable.

The two of them ran into each other with a massive explosion of energy.

The smoke cleared, and both pokemon were seen lying on the ground, several yards away from each other. Both were struggling to get back up on their feet, neither one of them willing to lose this battle. Pikachu nearly got back up onto his feet, but he fell onto his side in exhaustion, unable to battle.

Aggron on the other hand, stood up on its hind legs and roared triumphantly.

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted, running onto the battlefield to help his fallen pokemon. Picking him up, he asked, "Are you okay?"

A weak "Pika..." came from his friend.

The girls' hearts suddenly sunk. Pikachu had lost. Ash had lost. And now what was going to happen to them? They looked at the man as he spoke.

"Well, Ash, that was a good battle. Nevertheless, you lost, and I'm afraid all of your pokemon are mine now."

Holding Pikachu, Ash looked up at the man, his face showing anger. He headed back to his backpack, which was sitting on the ground where he gave the orders to his pokemon. He looked at Pikachu, who was weak from the battle he just fought. He sighed, and sobbed a bit.

"Pika?" Pikachu said, trying to comfort his friend.

"I'm sorry..." he said.

He grabbed his backpack, looked up and saw J standing in front of him.

"Give me the pokemon," she ordered him.

Ash looked at the backpack for a moment, and then glanced back at the girls, who were still sitting on the ground. He then looked back at J, who was waiting for him to give her the backpack.

Ash growled. "Never!" He strapped the backpack onto his shoulders, and then ran past J, pushing her aside, and running off into the corriders of the base.

"Stop him!" the man ordered J. She was already chasing after Ash. "I knew he wouldn't comply with our agreement." The man then turned towards the girls and his henchmen. "We have one last use for the girls," he said. "I believe you know what to do."

The henchmen nodded, and then grabbed the girls, and took them out of the room, the three of them struggling and trying to get away.

Ash ran through the corriders, searching for a place to hide from J and whoever else might be chasing after him. The place was like a maze, so it shouldn't be too hard to hide. He found a utility closet which he immediately ran into and shut the door. He sat on the ground with Pikachu, keeping quiet until he heard the footsteps that were chasing after him pass by. He then breathed a sigh of relief, and looked at Pikachu.

"We've got to do something Pikachu," he said. "I won't let them take you away, or any of my pokemon, and I won't let them take away my friends."

"Pikachu," the electric pokemon agreed, his energy already starting to be regained from the battle.

"But what can we do?" Ash said solemly. They sat there in silence for a few long moments.

Suddenly, there was voice that seemingly came out of nowhere, but it took a moment for Ash to realize that it came from a speaker. "Oh Ash," the voice said. "surrender your pokemon, or your friends will pay the price."

Ash grumbled at the sound of the voice. They were threatening his friends! Either give up his pokemon or lose his friends. Well he wasn't going to let either of those happen. Standing up, he placed Pikachu and his backpack on the ground. "Stay here," he said. "If I don't come back soon, come looking for me."

"Pika?" the pokemon asked, his ears down a bit in confusion. He was worried what Ash was going to do.

"I'll be right back," he reassured his pokemon as he opened the door, looked around, and then shut the door. He headed down the hallway as quietly as he could, heading back to the arena where he had the battle. He looked in there. No one there, and neither were the girls... He'd have to look elsewhere.

He travelled through the corriders, carefully looking in each room to see if the girls were in there. But most of them turned up empty, and he quickly left before anyone saw him. If someone came down the hallway, he hid himself in an empty room or in another corrider. Once they passed by, he kept searching.

Finally, he found them. They were in a room and were inside some strange container. No one else was in the room, so he ran up to them. There was a window, and he looked inside at them.

"Misty! May! Dawn!" he said, catching their attention. They called out to him from beneath their gags. "You guys okay?" They appeared to be, other than the fact that they were tied up. They called out again, although this time more urgently. "Hold on, I'm going to get you-"

He suddenly shouted in pain as something hit him from behind. He collasped to the ground, his muscles gone limp. He gasped sharply from the pain, and saw J coming up to him. He growled. He should have known it was a trap. He couldn't do anything as J dragged him into the container with the girls, and bound his hands behind his back.

"That oughta hold you," she said as she finished tying the knots. She turned to leave the room, and said, "You've outlived your usefulness. We won't be seeing each other again."

"What?!" Ash shouted, but then she shut the door of the container.

Ash looked at the girls. They seemed happy to see him, yet they were sad because he had been captured too. "You guys okay?" he asked. They nodded, but hung their heads in sadness. "Don't worry," he told them. "Pikachu will come help us."

There was suddenly a soft rumble in the container, and they all looked around. A hole opened up on the wall near the floor, and water suddenly came pouring in. They all suddenly knew what they were planning to do to them, and started trying to escape, pulling at their binds.

Pikachu waited several long minutes for Ash to return, just sitting there. Occasionally, someone walked by and he froze, not sure if it was Ash or someone else, but they left and he relaxed. He was worried about Ash. Did something happen to him?

He couldn't wait anymore. Leaving Ash's backpack behind, he left the supply room, and headed down the hallway. Fortunately, no one was around, although someone would probably spot him sooner or later. He kept quiet as he searched for Ash.

The hallways went in every direction, and he thought he was lost as he travelled down random hallways. He hid whenever he heard voices nearby, and kept moving when they passed by. He kept looking for Ash, saying "Pika?" quietly in every room he went into.

He rounded a corner, and then stopped as he saw some henchmen standing in front of him.

"Hey! There's that kid's Pikachu!"

"Pika!" the pokemon shouted, and turned the other direction and started running, the men following close behind. He was a bit tired though, and started to slow down. He suddenly tripped and fell to the ground. The henchmen came up to grab him.

"Pikachu!!" he shouted, blasting them back with a thunderbolt, knocking them unconscious. Unfortunately, his attack had attracted the attention of other henchmen, who came in his direction. He quickly ran into a nearby room, and hid behind the door, waiting until they passed by.

Panting heavily, he looked at the room he was in, and saw a container. Curious, he walked up to the container. He smelled his friends' smell in there.

"Pika!" he cried out, to see if they were in there.

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted. "Get us out of here, hurry!" Pikachu couldn't see it, but the water was already up to their waists, and that's while they were on their knees. "We're going to drown!"

"PIKA!" Pikachu shouted. He looked around, and saw the door to the container. He jumped up, and pulled on the door handle, twisting and turning it. But it was no use. The door was locked shut.

The water level was rapidly rising. They were all starting to float in the water a bit. Pikachu had to hurry. He didn't have much time left.

"PIKACHU!!" he shouted, shocking the container with electricity out of desperation. It didn't do much except send sparks flying all over the place, and unfortunately, it shocked the kids inside.

"Not...a good idea...Pikachu..." Ash said, his voice barely heard inside the container. They had all been affected by the thunderbolt, and were weakened, floating in the water limply. The water had already risen another foot by then, leaving only three feet of air left for them to breathe.

Pikachu had to try something different. He started pounding the door with iron tail instead, desperately trying to get the door open. But it barely made a dent in the solid metal container. He tried again and again, but it didn't do much.

The water was almost to the top now, and they were gasping for breath. Dawn was beneath the surface now, trying to keep afloat. Misty and May were barely keeping their faces above the water, and Ash was doing the same.

"Pika!" he cried out from the outside of the container, tears flowing from his eyes. His friends were drowning and he couldn't do a thing about it. He repeatedly smashed his tail in different areas of the container, frantically trying to save them. He didn't hear Ash's voice anymore.

Inside, the water had filled the container completely, and all four of them were living on their last breaths of air. They looked at each other with sorrow in their eyes. This was it. This was the end.

"I'm sorry," Ash mouthed with his lips at the girls, knowing that he had failed to save them.

Dawn was the first to go, slowly sinking to the bottom as bubbles escaped from her mouth, her blue hair floating upwards as she sank. Ash cried out as he saw Dawn go unconscious.

May was next, the same thing happening to her. There was just Misty and Ash left. Tears came to their eyes, Ash especially. Then Misty's eyes closed, and she moved no longer.

Ash cried as he watched the girls die before his eyes. He knew he wouldn't last much longer.

"I'm sorry," he said verbally, bubbles escaping from his mouth as he spoke. His lungs burned, and then the world started to go black as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Pikachu kept pounding at the container, over and over and over again, but it was no use. He was running himself ragged, panting heavily when he stopped for a moment. He couldn't do it anymore. He was just too exhausted.

"Pika!" he shouted at the container, hoping to hear some response. But all that came was silence. "Pikachu!!" he shouted again. Still nothing. "PIKACHU!!" He even tried blasting the container with electricity again. Nothing happened.

"Pika..." he started to cry, tears pouring from his watery eyes. He sat down on the ground and hung his head on the ground, and started to sob hysterically.

As many times as Ash and his friends had faced danger, they always made it out alive. Sadly, this was not the case...

Pikachu heard someone coming. He turned and saw J standing at the doorway. It was only a matter of time before someone came in here, what with all the noise he was making.

"Pika!" he shouted angrily, leaping to face her, tears still flowing down his cheeks.

But J was ready. She had her special pokemon capturing device, and pointed it at Pikachu.

"Pika!" A thunderbolt flew towards J, striking the ground right in front of her. She barely dodged the attack, but regained her footing, aimed at Pikachu, and fired.

Standing up in surprise, Pikachu felt his body stiffening. He called out a last time before his body completely froze.

Even though he was frozen, he could still see and hear what was going on around him. He saw J's hovering machines coming over and picking him up. He saw and heard that man paying J for her work, and they had found Ash's pokeballs.

His mind was in depression. His friends were dead, and he was stuck as this frozen statue, not knowing what will happen to him next.

Even though he was frozen, he still managed to cry, as tears from his eyes dripped over his soldified body.


End file.
